Along an assembly line, diapers and various types of other absorbent articles may be assembled by adding components to and otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, absorbent cores, front and/or back ears, fastener components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing web(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the web(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles. The discrete diapers or absorbent articles may also then be folded and packaged.
In converting processes, various conveyors may be used for advancing continuous lengths of flexible substrates and/or absorbent articles. In some instances, there is a need to transport a flexible product, such as a continuous length of assembled disposable absorbent articles, from one unit operation to another unit operation. For example, conveyors may be configured to convey a continuous length of absorbent articles from a folding unit to a rotary cutting knife. As such, an upstream conveyor may transport the continuous length of absorbent articles to the rotary knife, and a downstream conveyor may transport discrete absorbent articles from the rotary knife. With rotary knives, the flexible absorbent articles cannot be pulled from the discharge side of the knife for at least one part of the machine cycle, and as such, the upstream conveyor may need to push the absorbent articles for a portion of the machine cycle. Various types of conveyors may be used to carry out these types of functions, such as for example: a set of opposed rollers; opposed conveyors; or vacuum conveyors. However, these conveyor apparatuses may not account for differences in thickness of the flexible absorbent articles, and as such, may have some drawbacks. For example, opposed conveyors may be positioned to have a nip with a relatively large gap, and may only grip the flexible product in regions having relatively large thicknesses. Thus, such conveyors may have not be able to adequately hold the flexible absorbent articles during portions of the machine cycle when it is necessary to push the absorbent articles downstream. In sections where the flexible product is thin, upstream web tension can pull the flexible product out of the nip point between the conveyors. Consequently, the flexible product may not be transported into the downstream unit operation, resulting in a jam and line shutdown.
Consequently, it would be beneficial to provide a relatively less complex apparatus and method for conveying a continuous length of absorbent articles that utilizes compliant rollers to transport the web that also account for variations in thickness of a product web.